Ed Culhane won seven straight on the one-loss side and battled to a double-hill win over Christian Smith in the finals of the Tri-State Tour stop on Saturday, February 5. The $500-added, B-D handicapped event drew 50 entrants to Castle Billiards in East Rutherford, NJ.
Culhane was moved to the one-loss side in the early rounds by Bogie Uzdejczyk, who advanced to challenge Christian Smith for the hot seat. From among the winners' side final four, Uzdejczyk defeated Brian Cap 7-2, as Smith sent Steve Wade to the one-loss side 8-5. Uzdejczyk and Smith battled to double hill before Smith prevailed, sending Uzdejczyk to a semifinal re-match versus Culhane.
With two notches carved into his west bracket belt already, Culhane defeated Paul Raval 7-1, and Guy Iannuzzi 7-4 to pick up Cap. Wade drew Jake Schwartz, who advanced past Nick Verducci 7-5 and Joe Fego 7-2. In his first of three, double hill matches that would eventually earn him the event title, Culhane defeated Cap 7-6, as Schwartz eliminated Wade 7-2. Culhane then dropped Schwartz into fourth place and turned to his re-match against Uzdejczyk in the semifinals.
The two battled to double hill before Culhane was able to avenge the earlier loss with the drop of the match's final ball. With momentum on his side, Culhane opened up a six-point, 7-1 lead in the finals before Smith roared back to knot things at double hill. Culhane took the final rack to take the event title, his third on the Tri-State Tour, dating back to August of last year.
Tour representatives extended thanks to Sterling-Gaming, Ozone Billiards, Viking Cues, Ron Tarr Cues, Phil Capelle, BlueBook Publishing, and Dr. Dave Billiards Instructional Products for their sponsorship of the event.
